NEAT STUFF FOR SALE

FORGERIES: These are mostly cast as you can see by casting marks near the date. and around the surfaces. Many fakes today are made in China and many come with authentication. Stamped coins may have wear but when you see raised metal on the surface usually near the date, you can see that its been cast. Some rare dates that are cast have had been artificially worn to allow the value to remain high but to also wear down any casting imperfections.

These rare and valuable dates can also end up in PGCS slabbed cases with accurate bar codes as well. What a forger will do is actually purchase the REAL PGCS slabbed coin, then make the forgeries, then release them into the market slowly. This way when people call PGCS to attest the bar code, it comes up as a good registered coin. Months later another one surfaces and again they call PGCS and are told YES ITS REAL. PGCS more then likely thinks that the coin was sold rather then have 20 people at the same time call with the same bar code #. In fact, many codes can be checked on line making it impossible to know if your PGCS coin is in fact real or fake. testing the weight and metal composition is the only true way to tell. and NOW many fakes are being stamped not just cast...

ALSO NOTE: a slabbed forgery can in fact be the front half of a Morgan and the back half of another showing a mint mark making the date with that mint mark very rare. so make sure you carefully look at the edges even if slabbed so see if two halves have been attached.

PILLAR DOLLAR or 8 Reale coins have been copied only a few years after they were originally created in 1733. In the 1950's, copies were stuck in the US and some think these copies were used as props in pirate movies and given out as promotional items. So when someone says they found it in their Grandfathers old chest and therefor it must be old and real is still not necessarily so.

A real pillar dollar weighs in at 27 grams and heavy wear is would weigh at the least 26 grams. ANY GRAM UNDER 26 and the coin is fake. Also its important to know the bracket pattern around the rim should be tight and not sloppy.

MORGAN DOLLARS are being copied at an alarming rate so to protect your money and interests it would be worth investing in a $30 mini battery scale that weighs ounces, grams, and Pennyweight.

ALL MORGANS in unworn condition weight 27.73 grams and are .900 silver and .100 copper. FAKES have 1% silver but in China, the forgeries are now being made with a low grade silver in order to get the weight closer to the real Morgans. For this reason you should get a very accurate scale with 100th weight reading 0.000. If the weight is not within a 1 or 2 100th of a gram, the coin is probably fake. ALSO BEWARE! forgers who are selling coins will put them in those cheap cardboard window holders and add additional metal shavings in between the card. This way the seller who is trying to scam you will show you the fake weight and then tell you to just subtract the weight of a empty coin holder so when you weigh the coin in the holder minus the holder is comes up the correct weight. SO don't fall for that new trick.

There is no denying that .900 silver is better at transferring heat and one test I used was to boil water and in each hand hold a real Morgan (that you know is real) and a fake. the real one will transfer the heat faster and the pain from the heat will be quicker then the fake coin. Also to note that when testing diamonds, REAL diamond feel COLD when you touch them to your tongue, hence the nickname (ICE)...